By PAUL GULLY

Special Projects Editor

Tory Dantuma, the former Oakland University student accused of writing a threatening message on a bathroom wall at OU reached a plea agreement with prosecutors at a preliminary hearing on Tuesday.

Dantuma faced a felony charge of False Report or Threat of Terrorism, but plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of malicious destruction of a building greater than $200 but less than $1,000, at the 52-3 District Court in Rochester Hills.

Standing before Judge Nancy T. Carniak, Dantuma admitted to writing “I will shoot you next, Va Tech” on a wall in a dormitory bathroom on April 15, 2008.

The misdemeanor carries a punishment of up to one year in jail and up to a $1,000 fine, a significantly lighter punishment than the 20-year maximum sentence he faced if found guilty of the original felony charge that was dismissed.

However, it is likely that Dantuma will be sentenced to two years probation under Michigan’s Holmes Youthful Trainee Act (HYTA), according Jeffrey Quas, Dantuma’s attorney. However, a date for sentencing was not set.

HYTA allows a judge, in certain instances, “to place a youth between 17 and 20 who is alleged to have committed a crime and who has plead guilty to that crime to be placed in prison or on probation without a conviction to avoid a criminal record,” according to the Michigan Department of Corrections website.

In this instance, if Datuma complies with the judge’s sentence, the criminal charges will be dismissed and will not appear on his record.

“This was an unfortunate event, and obviously a stupid mistake on the part of Mr. Dantuma, but this doesn’t define the type of person he is,” said Quas.

“I think everyone can agree that Tory is not a threat to anyone,” he later said of his client.

Quas said he felt that the initial felony charge was a “knee jerk reaction” due to the severity of recent events, such as the Virginia Tech shooting.

The plea agreement comes approximately a month after Dantuma last appeared in court, during which time his bond was reduced from $1 million to $5,000 by Judge Carniak. During the hearing, in which Dantuma was not present, Quas argued that his client was not at risk of flight, or a safety risk to others.

However, at the hearing Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Schrameck opposed the reduction, saying that the “bond should reflect the severity of the message conveyed as well as the severity of the charge.”

Quas later said that he felt that the initial bond was an “emotional reaction more than anything.”

Following Dantuma’s arrest on July 23, it was mistakenly reported by WXYZ.com (Channel 7 News) that Dantuma had been “arrested in the threat case that shut the university down for several days in April.”

However, two days prior to message found in the dormitory bathroom that was latter attributed to Dantuma, two other threats were found and prompted the closing of OU’s campus.

During Oakland University Police Department’s initial investigation, it was determined that the message written by Dantuma, was “the [effort] of a prankster or copycat.”

OUPD Lt. Mel Gilroy said that OUPD “did not feel the threats were credible,” and that he was not concerned that Dantuma constituted any risk to the community while he was being investigated, at the July 25 hearing in which Dantuma’s bond was reduced.

Dantuma was to be a junior at Oakland University. During his time at OU, he was on the men’s swimming and diving team and was also an OGL this summer.

Dantuma qualified for the Summit league finals on both the one- and three-meter boards during the 2007-08 season, according to his bio on OU’s swimming and diving team website. Dantuma finished seventh on the one-meter and eighth on the three-meter.

According to Dantuma’s attorney Jeffrey Quas, Dantuma has no prior criminal record.